Chapter Text
"Useless"
The most common word spoken to me for the first 7 years of my life was short, but packed the punch of, well, a punch I suppose.
"Worthless"
A reminder of my self, unable to provide what the clan wanted. The eldest of the chief, and yet born without a cursed technique.
"Disappointment"
My uncle's favorite. Not just to mock me, but my father as well. With my mother's advancing age, the chance for another heir was slim, so the title would go to his son, barely 4 years old.
A tiny body, no cursed technique, no prospects, and worst of all: a girl. Every day was a new personal hell. Act as a maid during a gathering, clean the estate top to bottom, escort visitors to and from locations, I was meant to be seen not heard, ordered around like a common pet with no agency.
Most sorcerers awaken their cursed techniques by 5 years old, but despite a sizable amount of cursed energy flowing through my body, no technique was evident. It stumped the elders my father had sent to examine me, but the problem persisted. I was treated as nothing more than a trophy, to be sold when I became of age, to hopefully pass down a technique to my children.
The discovery was a coincidence, something that would have gone unnoticed had it not been for that damn spirit. It's discovery would shake the foundations of the Golden Age of Jujutsu forever.
It was a bad night. I sleep with the shutters open on hot nights when there is little way to make myself comfortable. The estate has always been surrounded by veils and barriers to keep cursed spirits and unwanted guests out, but the spirit was different. It had a technique that let it conceal it's cursed energy for a limited amount of time, allowing it to bypass the barriers without being detected.
My room happened to be the first in its path. Away from the important areas of the estate, and first to go in a hypothetical invasion.
The time was well past midnight, I woke up to a sinking feeling in my gut, something wasn't right. I had barely sat up before a powerful force forced me down. The creature was solid black, covered in disgusting slime that quickly spilt out of it's body, filling the room. Despite it's size and power, it made very little noise, and it made sure to muffle my panicked cry at its sudden intrusion. Its deep red eyes bore deep into my own onyx black, seemingly judging my worth and finding nothing of interest.
The spirit grew heavier, slamming me into the ground with such force, a few ribs cracked and snapped. Nothing but a muffled cry surfaced as it destroyed my chest. Sludge filled my mouth and then my throat, destroying the one thing that may have saved me.
That's when I felt it. After exploring my trachea and lungs, the sludge started down my esophagus, and something changed. Instead of a mass of sludge filling my stomach, the force disappeared after hitting a spot behind my heart. The spirit seemed to ponder for a moment before advancing and hitting the same block. Then I felt the sensation again, in my hands. The spirit was busy throwing another load down my throat, so I advanced. Both hands were covered in a ton of the spirit's body, so it didn't take long to feel it, a tugging sensation began and then accelerated.
The spirit screamed out in pain. The sludge receded rapidly, but given it's immensity and amount, every part of it was clinging to me. I continued to pull, and prod at the mountains of sludge until it began to fade. It was little more than a pile no bigger than a dog when the creature finally stilled, and yet the sensation was still there, but I didn't find the need to continue. The creature finally begun to fade, turning into a substance like ash. Which was when the cavalry finally decided to make themselves known.
"Mistress Hirai, what happened?" A handmaiden screamed, bursting into the room.
"I... don't really know" I answered truthfully and painfully, but the rest of my answer was cut off when a bit of sludge slid off of my thumb and onto the covers of my bed. At first I thought it was a residual from the spirit, but the sludge stain stayed, while the rest of the spirit floated into the night sky. The handmaiden was at my side in a moment, assessing damage to the estate and checking my injuries, always the priorities first.
Without thinking, I prodded at the sludge staining the sheets and watched in fascination as it stuck right to my finger. The handmaiden was watching too, with fascination as the sludge was absorbed through my skin.
She gasped in surprise, while I sat in stunned silence. I could feel it, that spirit's cursed energy flowing like a part of my own. I called on it once more and the sludge came out of all ten of my fingers, coating them in a veil of black that stuck like a fly on wax paper. The sensation was incredible, like I could bend it to my will. The handmaiden was beside herself, and quickly left the room to wake my father, this was unprecedented. A power never before seen in the world of Jujutsu sorcery, and only discovered by the presence of that curse's energy and technique.
The ability to absorb cursed techniques.